Today that "scorched-earth" approach may have come back to haunt conservatives. Have they now boxed themselves into a corner, unable to support the power of the marketplace to reduce their own states' compliance costs under the new EPA CO2 regulation? I hope not, but only time will tell.

America's cultural turn toward a glorification of the private and a denigration of the public has coexisted with what quite obviously is a deterioration in privacy. As individuals, we have dramatically less capacity than in earlier decades to control information about even the most personal aspects of our lives.

I'm referring to the CO2 cap-and-trade allowance auction held by the State of California. The fact that the auction ran smoothly and compliance entities and others put their money down is one important step in establishing the program's credibility.

Our natural environment and the resource base for the world economy are inexorably linked. Therefore these two crucial parts must come together for the house to remain standing, as our species is now heading toward 8 billion by 2025.

Republicans who support subsidies should stop their mass-manipulation. Rather than hiding behind hypocritical pro-market rhetoric, it is time to admit they have embraced their very own entitlement-boom that rivals the dreams of any European welfarist.

I had thought that arguments about massive "free lunches" in the energy efficiency and climate domain had long since been laid to rest. The debates in California (and some of the rhetoric in Washington) prove otherwise.